


500 Words You Should Know: #256 Inveterate

by jasbo



Series: Piffle, Tinkerty-Tonk, and a Rusty Plane [4]
Category: Jeeves & Wooster, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
Genre: Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, F/M, Silly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-23
Updated: 2016-01-23
Packaged: 2018-05-15 19:04:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5796208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jasbo/pseuds/jasbo





	500 Words You Should Know: #256 Inveterate

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Fire_Sign](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fire_Sign/gifts).



 

 

> #  inveterate
> 
> [in- **vet** -er-it]
> 
> adjective
> 
>  1.settled or confirmed in a habit, practice, feeling, or the like: an inveterate gambler. 
> 
>  
> 
> 2.firmly established by long continuance, as a disease, habit, practice, feeling, etc.; chronic. 

At seven fifteen precisely, a discreet tap on the door of room 501 in the Clarendon caused Phryne to leap up from the writing desk. She had been attempting to compose a reply to Dot’s latest letter, but the prospect of her intriguing visitor was much more alluring. Her eyes were sparkling as she opened the door and her lips parted in a wide smile as she looked up… and up to the oddly handsome face capped by a very correct bowler set precisely square.

Jeeves doffed the hat and tilted his head slightly. “As promised, I am at liberty, madam.”

Phryne opened the door wider and gestured for him to come in. “I see. I had wondered if you would really come. You seem a very… correct gentleman.”

“Gentleman’s gentleman, madam.”

“And please, you are in my room. Do call me Phryne.” She took the bowler from his hands and laid it on a table. “May I get you a drink?” She gestured to the well-stocked bar that the Clarendon had provided her suite with.

“Please, allow me,” he moved toward the bar, but Phryne placed a hand in the center of his chest, stopping him.

“No, I insist. You are my guest, not my staff.”

Jeeves tilted his head again and took a seat on the small settee at her urging and requested Scotch whisky. Phryne noticed that he sat very straight, almost stiff.

“This isn’t something you usually do, is it?” Phryne asked as she passed him his glass and took a sip from her own, sinking smoothly into a more relaxed attitude at the other end of the settee.

“Not often, but it has been known to occur.” He took a long sip from his glass and leaned back slightly. “The long habit of being, as you put it, ‘very correct’ can be a difficult one to set aside. And some of the offers I have received have been… not to my taste. Miss Honoria Glossop, for instance, proposed a rather distasteful sounding usage of assorted pieces of sporting equipment.”

Phryne laughed “How awful for you. I have to say, I am fascinated by this mask of the gentleman’s gentleman, but I am far more interested in the man beneath the mask.”

“You are too kind, madam.”

“Phryne. I insist.”

Jeeves tilted his head again, smiling slightly. “Phryne. Please call me Reginald.”

Phryne’s face lit up with a smile of pure delight. “Reginald. That is just perfect.”

Reginald leaned back slightly, his shoulders relaxing a fraction. “I shall tell my mother that you approve, ma– Phryne.”

Phryne leaned forward, knowing that the loose neckline of her dress would provide Reginald with a lovely view, and was pleased to see that his habitual rigidity did not reassert itself. Rather, Reginald looked amused. Oh, it was a delight to play with an intelligent man. Setting her drink down, she reached long slender fingers out to stroke and then loosen his tie.

“Now that we have established that there _is_ a man under that habit of correctness, what are we going to do about it?”

Reginald downed the rest of his Scotch and placed his glass next to hers. “I believe that the gentlemanly thing to do is insist on the lady’s choice.”


End file.
